Carp Fair - not so much fun

Carp Fair : slick website. 151 years old.

Why, you ask?
They have a huge organisation, with buses taking you to the fairgrounds, a large 34-member Board of Directors. But, they

Lots for sale
-knock-offs?

don't allow backpacks in. Now, hubby needs his medications, water, and his special snacks, as he has health issues that preclude eggs, yeast, dairy foods.

The big, burly security guards were vigilant in refusing to let this 64-year-old man in with an old backpack. He stuck it in the bushes, and I had to carry his water, pills, snacks, along with my camera equipment. My purse was allowed in.

What is with this? Usually, at fairs, you buy market goods, with many stalls around selling all the usual belts, hats, flags. The volunteer at the parking area, a 15 minute walk or a bus ride down the road, said we could probably get in with the backpack. Not so. The security guards were merciless. "Read the signs", they said. By now, the car was down the road.

Now, they let in a family with a backpack, they had a kid in a stroller and bottles and diapers were in it. They let in other with backpacks. What is their assumption? That they don't want food in, as they want you to buy it?

I truly do not understand. Amloda, Inc. guards carefully watch and check each person in.
Is it kids bringing in drugs or alcohol? Or they want people to eat at the concessions?
It's crappy food: sugary,  boiled in oil fattening stuff, and we did not eat there. We went across the street to Alice's cafe, where hubby struggled to find something he could eat. The split-pea soup had no dairy or eggs, thankfully. He couldn't have any bread or buns, though.

One blogger wrote, in 2011,

“People may look at the event and think of all the money we are generating, but the expenses are also huge as the cost of security and policing reached approximately $25,000 this year.”

1. Carp Fair | "Best Little Fair in Canada"

2. Not so much fun. You cannot get near to the horses, which is the part hubby likes. They are large, expensive, registered horses; the Clydes, Percheron, and the like. I can understand protecting them, but it was disappointing. 
   

   1. They do prohibit dogs, which is a good thing, with all the amazing animals.

3. 1. 

      Hubby, 2009 Bracebridge Fair
      This was bliss!

       Volunteers and gates keep you out of the barns, and you cannot get near them. It really is too big a fair for us to enjoy. It is too commercial, too many people hawking questionable goods, and just a zoo! The smaller fairs don't attract as many of the big horses, since it is expensive to haul them there.
4. The best fair we attended was in Bracebridge, where hubby was able to actually touch the horses, which took him down memory lane. As a child, living on the farm, they had big workhorses.
5. Thankfully I had the medium zoom lens with me. I couldn't bring my large one, as it is too heavy to carry. (No backpacks, remember!)

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The barns are busy with other competitions. Lots of small kids.



Goodbye, Carp Fair. We won't be back.